OPEX © 1999-2016

Training Vs. Testing

By James FitzGerald

OPEX © 1999-2016

It is now well known that when anyone who hasn't exercised in a long period of time (or ever) does anything that their fitness will improve simply by having done anything. But, what this does not mean is that this anything is the answer for everyone's fitness goals.

Since the early 2000’s CrossFit has been a juggernaut method of thinking about how to exercise. It has brought more to the fitness industry than what was created in the 50 years prior. Sure it has created much controversy, but in the same token, it has provided massive growth in our understanding of what “work” REALLY is. Historically work was always connected to running, track, and bike sprints.

When CrossFit proposed work could be: • Running +  • Jump Rope +  • Dumbbell (db) Push Jerk +  • Pull Ups +  • DB Hang Squat Cleans *Prepare yourself...we will dig into this more later in this post

 ...all of these movements are combined in 5 min where the commentary from the public looked like this:

• The old school Strength and Conditioning coaches called it “blasphemy" • The exerciser thought it was awesome • The new coach saw it as a business idea • The athlete saw it as a challenge

I have sat in all of their shoes. But I had the belief that if it was done effectively that it was a powerful tool for people's progress.

OPEX © 1999-2016

At OPEX, we believe that there are fitness methods and fitness models of development that have been practiced and observed for 100 years and we cannot discount them. These fitness and exercise methods have laid the ground work for us to transcend and include new methods or tools that we are not entirely sure HOW to play with just yet.

This is my perspective on how I see CrossFit and its method of improving fitness. I DO truly believe that when it is done with these principles in mind, the method is fun, productive, and efficient.

When it’s done with guesswork and largely artistry without scientific design, it can be good only for 2 groups: • The bottom 10% - beginners who have done nothing therefore anything is good for them • The top 5% - the most resilient and adaptable athletes in the world When these bottom 10% and top 5% are used in marketing, it is PROFOUNDLY interesting! Most inspirational stories that pull at heart strings come out of these two groups. Picture this difference in your mind: watching someone only 2 years into fitness trying specifically to improve their Clean and Jerk vs. watching the best athlete in the world doing superhuman fitness feats. What is more entertaining?

At OPEX, we have proposed methods of improving “fitness” and physical/mental sustainability. These methods are based on science through tried and true experiences that have resulted in many successes and failures since 2005. With the proper feedback loops all of the experiences and experiments that have been studied have continued to build into a stronger and stronger principle based system of fitness. I will be the first to say our OPEX “method” of doing CrossFit is ever evolving as new theories are proposed, tested, and analyzed. While it may not be the only answer out there for folks, it sure makes the MOST sense in training for the Sport of Fitness.

Timeline of Fitness

OPEX © 1999-2016

Anyone who knows me, has sat in my lectures, has taken a course from me, or has read through the blog (opexfit.com/blog) knows I am a HUGE proponent of volume in training for people looking to "get better" at CrossFit. People need to have a strong development of their base fitness abilities so that they have a foundation with which to make progress for the short AND long run. 

• Think of testing as going all out.  We are talking 100% that may feel like 125%.

• Think of training as building volume.  That volume is not a situation where the goal is to go as fast as possible.  The goal is to "complete work consistently" so that you can come back tomorrow (or the next day) and do more work at the same pace (NOT all out). This pattern must continue for a long period of time so that that person's system can handle a lot of work at progressively faster pacing over time.    

I DO believe there is MASSIVE upside to training the systems so that they can improve the testing of them.  But I do not believe in just testing all the time.

Testing or Training?

Testing

Training

OPEX © 1999-2016

Let me give you examples:

NEWBIE - You have someone start at zero/nothing. their 2,000m row (2K row) score is 8:23. • You CAN do this  ◦ 2K row TEST every 5th

day where the instructions are CrossFit style - “high intensity” - go all out, whiteboard! 

◦ Their score will look like this over a 2 month period - 8:23, 8:20, 8:12, 8:11, 8:12, 8:08, 7:59, 8:01, 8:00, 7:56, 7:55, 7:53

◦ The person has improved - in 2 months they are down 30 sec on their 2K lifetime best time trial. The person has improved - in 2 months they are down 30 sec on their 2K lifetime best time trial.

• Proof of system? YES • Marketable as “working” ? YES • Intensity wins? YES

3 YEARS IN - Their lifetime 2K row personal record (PR) is 7:34. they have attempted the 2K 2 times/year - once in class and once on their own. • You CAN do this  ◦ Let's follow the same guidelines as

above. every 5th day there is a TEST of the 2K. Again, the instructions are CrossFit style - “high intensity” - go all out, whiteboard!

◦ For 2 months, this is what they will get - 7:35, 7:41, 7:35, 7:33, 7:33, 7:38, 7:40, 7:34, 7:32, 7:33, 7:34, 7:35

◦ The person has improved over the 2 months by 2 sec but they only did that one time and it was halfway through. At the end of the testing period their score is actually 1 sec slower than their initial test.

• Proof of system? NO • Marketable as working? arguable • Intensity wins? maybe

OPEX © 1999-2016

It is important to discuss real world examples of workouts that fitness audiences are watching on a daily basis.  Here is an example of Dan Bailey doing a CrossFit.com workout.  Here are the details of the workout:

SO Much to Discuss, SO little Space

Click the picture to watch

or go to: https://youtu.be/0zCzaAFaYm8

OPEX © 1999-2016

In the 5 min of effort and the 5 min of rest workout that Dan Bailey did, here were his scores.

When training, one should always ask the question of what the EFFECT of that training session was? When you understand this you can see where someone is “standing” in all areas of energy systems training. You can see HOW they get work done. And you can learn what is effective for their PROGRESSION rather than “just training” by knowing how they respond after this one piece of work that goes into the NEXT ONE. 

It's now well known that it's NOT the work that dictates who becomes the best, it's how well you recover from the work! Asking the question about the DOSE RESPONSE is what we teach OPEX coaches. you need to know WHY you are doing what you are doing so that you can teach athletes to recover better so that they can do more work faster over time! It can still be fun, varied and effective.

OPEX © 1999-2016

In OPEX terminology, we call 5 min of “work” and 5 min of rest - as in the case with Dan Bailey - MAP 6. it is a classification we use to help coaches understand WHAT they are doing in the training. The purpose of MAP 6 is to prepare someone through work intervals that last roughly 5 min. But, the work is designed to be intervals of SUSTAINABLE work to ENHANCE their 15 - 20 min "race pace." [i.e. 3 min intervals are for a 10-12 min race pace, 10 min intervals are for a 40 min race pace, etc…when training for sustainability]

In the case of Dan Bailey's CrossFit Training example, MAP 6 would be done to enhance his speed and pace for a 15 min workout that would include all the specific workout movements in them. 

What if we look at the 3 rounds of 5 minutes workout where someone is looking for “the best score” and they do: • set 1: 5 min work - 150 reps, 5 min rest • set 2: 5 min work - 135 reps, 5 min rest • set 3: 5 min work - 120 reps

You can see this is NOT sustainable work. and it's basically threshold work - where the GOAL (i’d assume) is to push the effort and work on threshold of some system within the time frame. When someone decreases reps per 5 min - this CAN be lactic threshold work. where their limitations are preventing sustainability for each subsequent round.  Let me be clear, this is NOT progressive work. in MOST cases, as seen proliferated in a LOT of intense based gyms around the world, this actually makes people MORE tired which means they recover LESS fast.

But…it feels “good to suffer”

MAP Training

OPEX © 1999-2016

From the workout that Dan did, we can ask a few more things.

Questions?

1. Why only 3 repeats of 5 min? why not 6? why not 10? Too much work? for whom? A fitness goer in a 60 min class? Maybe. For an athlete? Arguable.

• Remember - volume dictates pace! - I’d argue he could hold a 1:20 run, 60 DU’s, 30 S2O, 35 pull ups and 15 squat cleans for 6-8 repeats of 5 min on and 5 min off.

• NOW, this does NOT mean that he has to do that much work - But the attrition seen in only a few rounds would indicate that holding back effort a little to do more work (if he so chooses) is actually TRAINING this sequence to be as aerobic as possible  

• If he only does 3 sets, he will have less of a SCORE but, as we know, scores only matter in competition settings, NOT in training for CrossFit.

• YES, Dan ‘might”get beat by someone who walks off the street and goes guns a blazing for the 3 sets but that person is left lying on the floor for 25 min after. Dan finishes his last set, cleans up his rope and sits down at the smoothie bar to recover and get ready for the next workout in a  few hours! (reminder: training versus testing)

2. Does going as hard as he can per set possibly change the training PURPOSE? • It is VERY possible especially with Dan’s talent and resilience that he goes hard per set, recovers well, BUT

the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) per round is MUCH higher each round. ➡ Like this - 150 reps (RPE 8 out of 10), 149 reps (RPE 9.5/10), 151 reps (RPE 10.5/10) ➡ This is called aerobic capacity pushing on the limits of lactic threshold.

• It is recommended that one does this closer to competition as volume of work is lower, intensity remains high, and it FEELS like a CrossFit competition. Neat eh?

• All year doing this - not a good idea.

OPEX © 1999-2016

3. Can he change his breathing to effect his output? • Yes. • I believe that he, like others, can learn how to breathe faster from the start to lessen the burden in later

rounds of the work that is coming. • Listen VERY closely to the video and you can hear and see him breathe each round; in most

cases at the hang squat cleans. • In the final round he is at 60+ breaths per minute

➡ lactate accumulation, lack of blood flow due to movement is MAKING him HAVE TO breathe faster to accommodate to the bath of lactate (“burn” or “swole”) he is referring to.

➡ As an example - under threshold on incremental cycling or running tests as well as hard effort Kettlebell Swing (KBS)/Row/Burpee tests show breath rates at threshold at 40-45 per minute

➡ In most of my research on breath rate, ventilatory threshold like this will make people tap out fairly quickly, but he seems to adapt well (no surprise) by HIGH breath rate for the work being done. (although it only lasts for a few minutes)

OPEX © 1999-2016

At OPEX when looking at vital capacity and forced expiratory volumes, we found when these scores are put right up against a person's lean body mass, there is a HIGH NEED to correlate the amount of muscle you are sending the blood to relative to how much you can take in and use.

if you are 6’3” and 250# and have a 6 Liter (L) lung capacity, the work you do and how much O2 has to be sent around is different than for someone else who's 5’7” and 180# with a 6L lung capacity. Imagine how much faster the bigger person has to breathe AND how well they need to use that O2 for all that lean mass compared to the shorter smaller person?

And assuming Dan’s background is speed (he is fast!) in the 400m then it does make sense that he HAS TO breath fast to send as much O2 to the LARGE amount of lean mass he has to work with. He is someone I call a muscle endurance athlete, not an engine athlete. He works hard, builds muscle and gets better when working off his muscles, not his lungs or heart as much. The learning here: do the best with what you are given.

*Side note - read the youtube comments on people asking questions on how these guys are so jacked doing cardio - SO funny; but you combine someone with faster twitch muscles, a good diet, a volume of resistance and muscle endurance and whammo - you get natural traps like that!

[Some] Explanation

OPEX © 1999-2016

I mean, who doesn’t want to train more? don’t you love it? If you don’t you’re probably not reading this. If you could train below threshold, improve your ability to sustain for longer pieces, improve your ability to recover from pieces when you go hard then i’d suggest you fall back in love with TRAINING and not always TESTING!

I know this goes against the "norm" but you only live once so train like this more often than you do: • Perform up to 80% of your max in the Snatch  ◦ Every 90 sec perform an AWESOME single of this weight ◦ Fall in love with the efficiency and how it feels.  ◦ How much energy can you NOT waste?  Work on that! • Do 8 Chest To Bar (CTB) on the minute for 8 minutes  ◦ then next workout 10 minutes  ◦ see how high you can get (without tearing your hands or injuring yourself of course) ◦ Fall in love with your breath rate in between sets and the power of it to help you recover from your

muscles  ◦ Work on rhythm ◦ Envision it being EFFORTLESS • Perform 6 sets of 500m row @ your best 2K row pace  ◦ Do it with 2:30 rest b/t sets  ◦ Then do more sets next week - up to 15 sets ◦ Fall in love with the control you HAVE over the rower, how you OWN the rhythm ◦ Fall in love with the pace and tempo

These are all examples of where we can get back in touch with TRAINING and the power it possesses. 

Don’t fall prey to the intensity card (all the time). Remember it only works if you are REALLY good or just beginning (bottom 10% or top 5%). There will come times (timing is everything right?) where you will test. These are fun times, exciting, and invigorating. It's a chance to see yourself reap the benefits of your efforts. Love those times as well but know that they don’t come ALL THE TIME.

You’ve Gotta Love Training

OPEX © 1999-2016

Ask yourself the question…

Why not max every day? I mean, why not?

When will this get old?

When will you stop making improvements?

You know the answers to these questions but in your head the answers must just “make sense” for why you don’t. If they don’t make sense, get yourself an OPEX coach to help you get educated on how to run your system the best way possible for you so that you can love training again.

We love getting people to fall back in love with training because we know the WHY behind why we do it. There is no guessing.

*Special thanks to Dan Bailey for the effort and CrossFit.com for the media coverage.

More Questions?